Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-09-23

tueTe are lOSI III Tue NdslneSS OF tilOSe great
oceans waves from which Holland pro-
tects her lands
We have then the food-producipg soil,
which Buckle claims is requisite for
national greatness. We have also eli
mate unequsied for its miidness and IN
surpassed for its salubrity. In summer,
along the coast and for one hundred miles
and more inland, the heat OF the sun is
tempered by the almost constant ocean
cooled westerly winds, while in the valleys
near the mountains, when the sun has
yelled his brightness behind the cresting
waves of the Pacific, the cool air descends
from the mountain summit and drives the
sun-warmed air of the valleys up, TO min
gle with the higher atmosphere above.
Our nights are almost always delightful
cool. and sunstroke is seldom experienced
in the climate of California.
| might speak of the mineral and timber
wealth of this State our quicksilver mines
may yet rival those of Spain, our iron ores,
only in part developed. may yet equal those
of Pennsylvania. We have petroleuhn. and
illuminating natural gas, and the great
mother lodes of gold-bearing quartz, which
traverse this State from north to south, the
exploration and development of which are
in measure but commenced, will yield for
ages gold, surprising in fineness and guam
THY that of the famed mines of Ophr,
which furnished the golden vessels and
ornaments which adorned the temple built
by solomon for the worship of the living
God and the cedars of Lebanon are sur
passed by the redwoods of California, The
mighty trees of these forests, almost awe
inspiring from their magnitude, and tow
ering high heavenward, might well be
deemed pillars supporting the azure vault
ahnVa taya, 10 TO- tha,
ship of Natures God.
California has all the natural physical
aspects for inspiring greatness. Her broad
valleys; her snow-capped mountains; her
deep rayines her towering precipices
over which leap the waters of her streams
forming cascades and waterfall many
hundreds OF feet high, give man enlarged
views of \ atures greatness, and inspire
him with the desire to attain greatness for
himself
With all these natural advantages the
inquiry is suggested: Why the increase of
California in population has been slow in
comparison to that of other States in the
Union? A brief consideration of the cir
cumstances connected with the settlement
of California since its admission into the
American Union. will afford solution to
this inquiry. California was long dis
lance from the older and more populous
States of the Union the expense necessa-
rlly incurred in emigrating from those
States here would be sufficient to procure
Tor the emlgrant q comfortable home in the
nearer Western States. The possibilities
for great agricultural State were then I'M
known even to Californians themselves
The known dry summers of California
no rains of any amount from April until
November-naturally induced residents
east of the Rocky Mountains to believe
that the soil of California was incapable of
profitable cultivation and the inhabitants
of the Northern and Eastern States, where
frost reigned king during the winter
months, were slow to believe that in the
same latitude, on the Pacific coast, land
could be cultivated during the winter
season.
An overland trip at that time, from the
Mississippi to Sacramento, consumed the
spring the winter and the autumn, and a
removal to California was then an appar-
ent severing of ties, of family, of kindred.
and of old friendships. The title to the
soil here was then uncertain the settler
who might then plant his vine and his fig
tree had no reasonable assurance that he
would be permitted to repose in peace
under their shade. Spanish grants sprung
up as thickly as did the armed men from
the dragon-teeth sown by Cadmus, and
were quite as dangerous.
They oftentimes over-lapped each other,
and the settler could not determine whether
they would STAY his claim as pre-emptor,
STAY each other, or be themselves slain by
adjudcations of the Courts. He could not
safely buy the Spanish title; he could not
with safety fight it. Everything as to land
titles was involved in uncertainty; and
the settler could not be expected to plant
vineyard, the fruits of which he might not
be permitted to eat. or to dig well, the
waters of which he might not be permitted
to drink. Again, in the first years of
California as a State, the two princi-
pal industries OF California were those
of mining and cattle-raising. The coun-
ties of the State were then divided
into what were known as the mining
counties and the COW counties. The
cattle-Owners required large ranges TO
make stcck-raising profitable; they con-
trolled to large extent the early iegisla-
tive policy of the State, and that policy was,
as might have been expected, favorable to
large land-holders. When wheat culture
succeeded largely cattle-raising the farmer,
with his many acres, plowed and seeded
them with the aid of hired help, and then.
when seeding time was ended for the sea-
son, would sit down idly to await the ma
turity of his crops; and his hired men, in
the interval between seeding time and har-
vest, being without employment became
tramps looking for work, often, however.
spending first in the brothels and saloons
of the cities the wages received for their
winters work. During the few months of
the harvesting season these laborerS again
found brief employment, to be followed by
months of idleness, ard often of dissipation
and OF tramping once more, seeking en-
ployment. The wheat growing farmer pur-
chased for home consumption in the CITY
markets vegetables, meat, butter, eggs, flour
everything he and his family consumed.
His sole source of income was from the
sale of his wheat crop, and should any sur
plus remain after meeting the expenditures
of the previous year, it was used in adding
to the acreage of his already too large landed
estate.
His sons, the natural energy of whose
youth required active employment of body
or of mind, firing of the monotony of such
farm life, with nothing there 10 do save for
a few months during the year, naturally
would seek the more congenial companion
ship to be found in our villages and cities,
and thus would lose the love of home life,
so requisite to sturdy yeomanry
Our farm wage-winners, from the want
months of their forced idleness, expend
the wages they had earned during the time
they worked, and thus would save no sur
plus of their labor earned money, to pro-
vide for themselves homes. They had no
homes; they reared no families.
In the Northern and Eastern States. the
land holdings are small but from his small
farm there, the husbandman produces
most of the necessares, and many of the
real luxuries of life; his farmhouse is sub
stantial and comfortable; his barns, sheds
ard granaries are large and commodious';
his land is conveniently divided by sub
stantiai fences, into small fields, suitable
for the varied pursuits OF grain and vege-
table growing, and for grazing; near his
house is his small orchard and garden,
which produce for home consumption his
fruit and his vegetables his hennery pro-
vides him with poultry and eggs; a
few cows of the most approved breed.
furnish butter and milk; few sheen
provide him with mutton and wool
few pigs, raised and fattened on products
of the farm which here would be permitted
10 waste, give him pork and bacon: 2 few
horses, of good breed. constitute his teams
the time not given to the cultivation of his
larger crops is devoted TO his orchard. his
garden and the improvement of his lands
his sons find constant employment al home
and learn 10 love home life; the cities afford
a remunerative market for the surplus pro-
ducts of his farm, and each year he accu-
mulates something, which, though it be
small, is preserved for his children when